The History of the Australian Penal Colonies :: Essays Papers

The History of the Australian Penal Colonies Abel Magwitch was one of the two exculpate criminals in Dickens Great Expectations. The convicts in this novel were sent to either Newgate prison house or institutionalizeped to Australia where they were placed in penal settlements. Magwitch was sent to New randomness Wales for his connections with Compeyson (the other convict) and was sentenced on felony charges of swindling and forgery. Convicts sent to penal settlements suffered the same abuse that slaves were undefend fitting to. The difference lies in the fact that these men and women were in these settlements because of crimes committed much(prenominal) as pickpocketing and murder. Such settlements were New South Wales, Van Diemans Land, Devils Island, and Botany Bay, to seduce a few. In fact, Botany Bay meant convicts and was looked upon merely as the couple receptacle of national crime (Inglis 4). Convicts were sent to these settlements as a way to nurse the number of felon s in the British Isles. Settlements created a place to live and cast in order to change or correct the character of the convict. During the ordinal century, convicts made up most of the population of Australia with a mere atom of actual free emigrants. The Australian penal settlements helped to develop a reinvigorated penal theory as well as different draw of Australia. By looking at the journey of the convicts, their service, jobs, authorities, punishment, and freedom, we will be able to understand the complicated theory of penal ideas and the plight of Magwitch, Pips convict. Many convicts began their servitude during transportation. Convicts entered upon what both(prenominal) call a repressive penal system through a long oversea journey (Connah 50). The problem with this journey was that no vas was specially designed and built as a convict ship (Batesan 68). This would make the transportation of convicts difficult. These were the kind of ships that Pip saw at the Hulks ti me lag to take prisoners or waiting to find them in order to wrap up on their journey, just as they had waited for Compeyson and Magwitch. Often, transportation of convicts was called convictism convicts were thrown on a boat and spent many days in waiting (Inglis 12). normally the voyage took eight months, six of them at sea and two in ports for supplies and repairs (Inglis 6). Often, many convicts died along the way. The case of the Second Fleet in the in truth beginning of transportation was the worst in the history of transportation (OBrien 168).